A teenager has been jailed after killing a man in a head-on crash on the A38 at almost 100mph.

Jack Bright, who was 18 at the time, was driving on the wrong side of the road at the time of the collision, and struck the other vehicle so hard that the engine on his modified Ford Fiesta was knocked out of the vehicle.

He had been overtaking cars at speed during the early hours on the A38 in the Glynn Valley, between Liskeard and Bodmin, reports Cornwall Live.

A court heard he was on the wrong side of a solid, central white line when he crashed head-on into Marek Cook, who was driving his Saab car in the opposite direction. Police believe Bright may have been travelling at 91mph.

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Mr Cook died as a result of his injuries and his wife and another passenger in the car were injured.

Bright, now 19, of Margaret Crescent, Bodmin, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving on August 19 last year and has now been jailed.

Prosecutor Francesca Whebell said Bright, who had passed his test a year before the crash, had modified his Ford Fiesta to make it up to 23 per cent more powerful.

She said: “Prior to the collision there is reference to two security officers by Trago Mills. They were aware they were overtaken by a vehicle. It was at speed and they were unable to say what the vehicle was. They commented that it was ‘an accident waiting to happen’.”

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She said another driver, Mr Fenton, was heading towards Bodmin in a van when he saw headlights in his rear view mirror.

“The headlights came upon him very quickly,” Ms Whebell added. "The lights appeared to be on the wrong side of the road."

As Mr Fenton’s van approached a slight rise, he said he could see another set headlights approaching from ahead and realised the two cars were going to crash.

Ms Whebell said: “He takes all the action he can, manoeuvring his car to the side, in the hope the vehicle behind can pass in the middle. He describes a thunder-like sound of the impact and has to fight to keep control on the vehicle caused by the force of the impact beside him and the debris that follows.”

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She said Mr Fenton stopped and came to the scene to find the two cars significantly destroyed. The force of the collision was such that the engine had come out of the Fiesta.

Ms Whebell said dashcam footage showed Mr Cook was travelling at about 50mph on the 50mph-limit road. She said the speedometer of Bright’s wrecked Fiesta was frozen at 91mph and added: “With other evidence, the police believe that figure is accurate of the speed at the time of impact.”

Defence barrister Jo Martin said: “This is a young man, now aged 19, who made a very, very stupid mistake, driving too fast on a windy road, late at night, and as a result of decision to overtake and being unable to get back in when a car came around the corner.

“Ninety miles an hour seems unlikely, but what is clear is he was driving in excess of the speed limit and, more importantly, on the wrong side of the road.”

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She said Bright had no memory of the crash and added he had received life-changing injures, both physically and mentally.

She said: “The brain damage he suffered is life-changing. It has changed him from a bright and focused young man determined to go into the Royal Marines to a young man who struggles with focus and a huge amount of frustration because he can’t think in the way he used to think and struggles with memory.

“What he is going to say for the rest of his life is, he has failed. Failed in his life. What he wanted was to be a Royal Marine who could help his country and help people, not as a stupid teenager who has killed someone.”